Barros Ignites Sixers To End Five-game Skid

76ers' head coach John Lucas called timeout with his team up by seven points and just 9.9 seconds left in what proved to be a 98-89 win over Washington last night at the CoreStates Spectrum.

Was that timeout a bit overly cautious?

Perhaps, but when you've lost four games in a row in the final minute and dropped 20 games overall by seven points or less, you don't take any chances.

"I never even looked up at the clock, I just kept coaching," said Lucas after his team snapped a five-game losing streak and won for just the third time in their last 18 games and sixth time in their 28.

"We coasted in to win a game we should have won. Different people stepped up. It was a great win for us."

OK, OK, it was only the Bullets, one of just three teams in the NBA to own a worse record than the Sixers at the start of the night. Still, it was hard to find fault with Lucas' enthusiasm.

Trailing by three entering the fourth quarter, the Sixers limited Washington to just 13 points in the final period -- the lowest total of any Sixer foe in the fourth quarter all season.

The Bullets misfired on 21 of 27 shots over the last dozen minutes. It could have been Washington's woeful marksmanship, but Lucas chose to praise his defense.

"I thought Clarence Weatherspoon did a good job on Juwan Howard and both B.J. Tyler and Greg Graham put pressure on their backcourt," Lucas said. "Derrick Alston even played Calbert Cheaney tough. That was the first time I can remember the other team not making shots late in the game."

The biggest factors of all were that Dana Barros played like the All-Star he was named to be Tuesday and Shawn Bradley played like ... well, he played like an NBA player for a change.

Barros scored 16 of his game-high 24 points in the closing quarter, while Bradley grabbed five rebounds and blocked four shots in the final 12 minutes.

Bradley totaled nine points, nine rebounds and five blocks, not bad for a guy who sprained his knee Monday night and didn't even think he could play.

"Shawn didn't want to play, but I told him he had to play because one of his goals is to play every night," Lucas said. "You have to get inside Shawn's head. Once you do, you find a lot of good things. He has a lot of fortitude."

Bradley admitted, "Coach Lucas has a nice way of talking you into a lot of things. I love this game and wanted to be out there, but I didn't know how effective I was going to be. I knew there was going to be a lot of pain. As the game progressed and I realized I could be a positive contributor, I stopped worrying about the knee."

The Sixers were worrying about another embarrassing loss when they trailed 60-51 early in the third quarter. They came back to take a two-point lead but again fell behind 76-73 entering the fourth quarter.

The Sixers started the fourth quarter with a 7-0 run. They stretched the lead to 89-82 on a Barros trey with 5:32 to play. They went nearly three minutes before scoring again, but Washington also came up empty in the same span.

Finally, when Bradley swished two foul shots with 1:23 remaining to make it 94-84, the Sixers (13-31) could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"Hey, any win for us is a sigh of relief," Barros said. "We did what we had to do. But we've had spot wins before. The big thing is can we follow this up with more good performances. We don't want to go back to the same things that killed us in all of those late losses."

If only the Bullets (11-30) could appear on the schedule a few more times.

"We couldn't make a shot," lamented Bullet head coach Jim Lynam, who knows all too well what tough nights are like on the corner of Broad and Pattison. Lynam can at least look forward to getting Chris Webber back in uniform tomorrow.

HOOP SCOOPS: Despite their atrocious record, the Sixers began the night just five games behind Milwaukee for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Asked if the playoffs were still a possibility before the game, Lucas said, "We don't look at that at all. We just want to win one game, so I can go to sleep."

Lucas also said he finds no solace in the fact that his team has played strong teams tough each night. "No, that doesn't make me feel any better. It makes me even sicker. That stinks. I get tired of hearing of how we've lost this many games by that many points. It doesn't mean anything to me. In San Antonio, I was used to winning. I have nothing to compare this to."